Students’ Learning Performance and its Relationship to Teaching Practice

Li Zhan, Dante Cisterna, and Charles W. AndersonMichigan State University

National Research in Science Teaching Conference2012

Overview

General approach

Research questions

Methods

Findings

Implications for future work

General approach

1. What are students’ learning gains across and within

school levels?

2. How do particular teachers use and understand

teaching materials?

Research Questions

Research methods

Data sources Participants Data analysis

Students’ learning results

Pre and post written tests

Pre: 166 ES 320 MS 153 HSPost: 171 ES 340 MS 185 HS

Quantitative analysis

Teachers’ interview about instructional practices

Stimulated recall interviews

3 Elementary teachers4 Middle school teachers4 High school teachers

Qualitative analysis

Data summary

- Description of classroom activities - Teachers’ appreciation of activities- Perception of student learning - Suggestions for improvement

Interview Data

Findings

Patterns in students’ learning achievements

Patterns in teacher’ interviews

Students’ overall learning gains in different school levels (pre-post)

Students at all school levels (K-12) show similar and significant learning gains after teaching intervention

Teaching intervention is effective in all school levels

Students’ overall learning gains per practice

Students learning gains are similar in each practice

Students’ overall learning gains within school level

Students of different teachers demonstrated different patterns of learning gains

Students’ learning gains in the five practices by teachers

Significant differences in learning gains within school level:

E2 vs E3 and E4

H1 vs H2 and H4

Characteristics of teachers with high learning gains

Connected activities with learning goals

Differences between teachers (1)

Pattern 1: Connecting activities with learning goalsWhen they referred to an activity of “burning materials”…

Teacher A: high learning gains Teacher B: low learning gains

“I wanted the kids to see it doesn't

matter what we burn or it doesn't matter

when you're burning your fuel, you're

going to give off water and CO2. So

whether it's happening in a candle or

whether it's happening in ethanol on your

cherries jubilee or whatever it is, all those

things, the products of combustion are

CO2 and water.”

“…this wasn't very helpful, and I don't

know if it was because I didn't burn

enough different types of fuels or - they

didn't - they know that oxygen's required

for burning, some of them do. But I don't

think they really understood where we

were going with this.”

Connected activities with learning goals

Emphasized more affordances of the teaching materials in their instruction

Characteristics of teachers with high learning gains

Differences between teachers (2)

Pattern 2: Affordance of teaching materialsWhen teachers use molecule kits…

Teacher C: high learning gains Teacher D: low learning gains

“Because building those models and

seeing that you conserved the

number of balls…to me is worth the

whole thing. I mean the whole thing

is getting them to recognize that

these are high energy, energy rich

materials because the kinds of bonds

that they have.”

“We did do the building air molecules,

that was fantastic. .... I didn't realize that

nitrogen actually has four holes when it

should only have three...I could tell the

kids "all holes must be filled, except for

nitrogen".

Connected activities with learning goals

Emphasized more affordances of the teaching materials in their instruction

Characteristics of teachers with high learning gains

Treated system and scale unit as a tool that can be applied to other contexts (such as other units and other topics)

Differences between teachers (3)

Pattern3: Applying system and scale unit in other contextsWhen teachers used tools of reasoning….

Teacher A: high learning gains Teacher E: low learning gains

“We kept both the process tools up in

our room, the power of ten chart I kept

right out in my hallway. So whatever we

did the whole year we could go refer to

it….so when we talked about cells later

on, it really helped me to put it on the

scale and say, “This is where it goes. This

is how small it is.”

“Whenever, like any other part of the

lesson in all of these, the whole series of

them, you never ask them to do this

again. Never say, how much bigger is

that and ask them to express it in a

power of ten…. And so unless we were

going to use that same skill later on in the

unit it seemed like it wasn't necessary. “

Connected activities with learning goals

Emphasized more affordances of the teaching materials in their instruction

Characteristics of teachers with high learning gains

Treated system and scale unit as a tool that can be applied to other contexts (such as other units and other topics)

Adjusted the unit based on students’ characteristics

Used the pool of teaching resources provided

Implications for future work

General: We see a relationship between teachers’ understanding and use of teaching materials and students’ learning gains.

Goals for current work We are reviewing teaching materials to make teaching materials’ affordances more explicit.

We are organizing workshops to help teachers improve understanding and implementation of teaching materials.

Thank you!